Sneak Peek: The Beginning of A Fistful of Collars

“Heard you drove another one off a cliff,” said Nixon Panero. He spat a thin brown stream of chewing tobacco into an empty paint can, or maybe not that empty. Yellow paint, the yellow of egg yolks, now with a brown swirl in the middle: there’s all kinds of beauty in life.

“You heard wrong,” said Bernie.

Uh-oh. Bernie was looking at Nixon in an irritated sort of way. Wasn’t Nixon our buddy? True, Nixon’s eyes were too close together, even for a human, but he was one of the best mechanics in the Valley according to Bernie, and if Bernie said so then that was that, and besides, Nixon was also one of our top sources on the street, even though we once put him away for a year or so. Or maybe because of it! Anything’s possible with perps, believe me. We’ve taken down lots, me and my partner, Bernie. That’s what we do at the Little Detective Agency. He’s Bernie Little. I’m Chet, pure and simple.

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YSAS and Friend decided to do a ghost walk in a near-by cemetery. It’s really DARK out here. So they pass the old, abandoned for years, Girl Scout camp and then there’s the graveyard . . . Friend said, WE ARE NOT GETTING OUT OF THIS CAR! It probably didn’t help that I said to be loud because of the bears. Which is true but citified people get a little nervous when I mention it.

OF COURSE, they find two lost dogs. Put them in the car and drive 2 miles down the road to a house. The guy came out and said yup one is my dog. He stays around the house until the neighbor’s dog (and he pointed out the other one) comes calling and leads him astray.

So no ghosts, no horror movie outcome, lost dogs and found, just another day in the life of YSAS!

Good morning! Can’t wait for AFOC.
We will have to watch the videos later. Pop is doing an online class now and won’t be able to hear if we play videos.
Glad YSAS was able to help the two lost doggies.
We are twirling with happiness for Aunt MollysMom’s new eyesight. Kat is afraid she won’t love her as much now that she can truly see her ! Silly Kat.

Melanie, hope you are feeling a bit better. What a guy YSAS is! I love a man that loves and rescues animals. The two faced kat is actually beautiful. SHe was on the TODAY show this morning, and is very sweet.

A beautiful morning here on the island of Manhattan as well. Counting the days now. Two more morning rush hour commutes to go. With Labor Day approaching, should be a piece of cake. I now have a second animal rescue facility interested in my peculiar talents. My wife has now changed her tune from predicting that retirement will find me dying on the vine. Now it’s “You’re having too much fun with this.” Can’t make everybody happy.

Thanks, B.Stover. I did look after you explained it. Cute Kat. YSAS and Friend are now awake and making a coffee run. You can take them out of the city, but they still have city habits. You don’t make coffee . . you take your morning walk and get coffee. So here they don’t make coffee . . they drive 4 miles to get it.

On tap for the day . . . We talk to the Paint and Construction guys about the next things that need fixing before winter. YSAS and Friend go with Zoë and all the Pack up for a walk / run. Come back, we go get peaches. Start making peach brandy. YSAS and Friend make dinner.

Look…Chet has given us more of AFOC…we owe it all to Riö. snicker.
Rose! Venus even has her own Facebookie page.
A Koala kutie.
Melanie: Driving 4 miles for a morning espresso? We can understand this would be a necessary start to the day for YSAS & Friend. What does Friend think of the Pack?

Melanie’s mentioning a cemetery reminded me of something I wanted to tell Stover:

Awhile back there was a short article in the newspaper about an old cemetery in Albuquerque. It said some Stovers were buried there and these Stovers were one of the founding families of Albuquerque. There was no other information in the article on these Stovers.
This surprised me because I would have guessed all the founding families of Albuquerque were Spanish. I wish I knew more.

Siber-H: Did the team win last night? (In other words, are you one step closer to “you know what”.)

B: Yay! No school for you.
We were thinking (always a dangerous thing) you may be enjoying your retirement and Terry about to enjoy his, but we know some who are working more hours than ever….e.g., Jay and TYB.
BTW, TYB, almost time for the September calendar!

Speaking of retirement…CHobbit is already preparing for winter.
And, Bella, you had best put on some socks with those sandals.
Is this weather normal for you both? Here on the Island 30 degree temps are considered cold even in the dead of winter!
Kat: You would make a fine FOM.

SH: Thank you. That’s really interesting. My brother and I did some searching a while ago and our first paternal ancestor was Hans Stauffer from Bern, Switzerland born in the 16th Century. The first to come to America via Germany was in the 18th century and the name finally became “Stover” in the early 19th century. When was Albuquerque founded?

Greetings all. Quick check in and out. We are using the new, birthday computer, and today is the day that all the old computer stuff gets transfered onto this one. So, everything is gonna get unplugged.

But that’s ok – Mama is spending the day making lasagna(to freeze and take to the beach for the annual dinner party) and spaghetti sauce for tonight. And we get pasta! Woo hoo!

BearSpirit – Yep, Terry is counting the hours now and comes up with the figure of 51. Meanwhile I’m in talks with a second animal shelter on Long Island – this one wants me to come in on weekends and take pictures of the animals. life is tough alright….

Back for a minute. YSAS and Friend have gone to a hydroponics store about 25 miles away. SHE loves the Pack. The Pack loves her. She is NOT an actor!

We have just hooked up Dan to the O2 for the first time. Patsy had to come in (and I do mean “HAD”) to check everything out. She sniffed, Dan, the hose, and the machine. She is now taking a nap.

In fact, the whole Pack is taking a nap because YSAS RAN with them today! Zoë and I only walk with the Pack. We let them do the running. So this was a treat.

BlueKat, love the pictures!

Dan’s side of the family came to North America very early. Two younger sons of a guy. One went to VA where we ended up at one point. The other went North of Boston, where we ended up. That son moved to Western MA. Where we are now. Weird.

Stover, The newspaper is the Albuquerque Journal. There was absolutely no information on the Stovers in that article except that they are buried there and they were one of the founding families of Albuquerque.
It caught eye because I know a Stover, and I thought it was so strange that is was an anglo name.

I don’t know how you found that info, Stover, but that is facinating.. I know when the university was first founded it was a distance away from the then small town of Albuquerque. I have seen old pictures of it out there in the middle of the desert. I will look up where Stover Ave. is in Albuquerque. Mom says she will drive me down it.

Lefty—now, in two locations! I want to kiss that wet nose and squeeze those pink paws! GLAD is so talented! B, when you won the drawing from GLAD in the auction, I had no idea that it would be so amazing.

YSAS and Friend have found PEACHES (the fruit, not the hen)! Our area peaches are scarce. And we only had few on our trees.

We will be making peach brandy just like Zoë’s Mom and Dad did during prohibition! Though we will be keeping the jars in the basement and not dig a hole and burying them. snicker. They had to do it in the middle of the night because the family next door were teetotalers!

Wose: AJ left early this morning, before the world even thought about being light, to get on the road for a work trip. He gave me a kiss, a hug and reminded me to lock the something or other. I forget. To make sure I didn’t feel alone, Belle Starr chose to let me know she was with me by tasting the chapstick on my lips. When I didn’t open my eyes, she took it upon herself to lick my eyelids. I’m awake! I’m awake!

B: Not only was Lefty in the Iditarod this year, he crossed the finish line in Nome. Ask him and he’ll tell you he led the entire way and was the saving grace to get the team off the sea ice. He did not and he was not. Lefty, while a stretcher of the truth, an adder of color to all stories and a down right thief, is a good boy.

B: Yes, I believe he thinks it ends in a preposition or mistakenly uses read as a noun, although I can never be too sure about what he is thinking. That picture was taken shortly after surgery to repair an eye wound. He was high on life and other elements. Notice the fencing down around his leg—this is also a result of his handy work.

Home!…Home!Home!Home!….yeep!yeeeeeeep! HOME!….My friend is home! They said she could leave early because of all the over-time she has been putting in…heh!…They probably didn’t want to pay her anymore time and 1/2…snorkel!…Immediately her mother pounced on her and away they went. Off to the gas station where her mother got her 3rd or 4th training session on how to fill up her car using a credit card at the pump….(((sigh)))…It can’t be that hard, can it? Beau does it all the time when he is moonlighting as a chauffeur with the Beaus-Mobile…snort!

Funny story at dinner . . . Just before YSAS and Friend got on the train they were running errands.

Discussing a friend’s issue about something, YSAS was saying he was tired of the person’s s**t. He was emphasizing with his hand out and has he said that one word, a bird pooped onto his hand and it bounced up in the air and then landed in the middle of his hat!

Fortunately for us here the cable guy didn’t actually turn out to be The Cable Guy. He did a fine job and was in and out in a reasonable amount of time.
Hopefully Barb&Magpie’s Comcast guy did just as well. She should be checking in soon.

Rio: Finally got episode 7 on Amazon. We will be watching that very soon.

Hey, y’all! I had to help Mom and Dad round up all the stuff for the trash and recycling guys, but now I’m here!

Mollypop’s Mom: Mom actually got to watch some eye surgery back when she was a medical reporter. It was bloodless, but still pretty ooky if you think about it too much! We’re glad it worked so well!

Bluecat and Bee: Great art! Not as good as my portrait, of course, but with such a wonderful subject as moi, all youse guys never stood a chance! (Just kidding — they’re wonderful! GLAD has outdone herself.)

Potential!…Lefty’s counter-surfing potential is very high indeed…snort!…I bet he could clear a counter-top in one fell swoop of his big ole paw…grunt!…Plus he is a thief by nature so throw that in the mix and you have a Grand Master Counter-Surfer…chuffle!

The Wookster is a great teacher. While I can clear a countertop in a single bound, it’s my brother, Pancho that has natural, dog given talent. Maybe some time when My Lady has some down time she will write the story of Pancho and an early morning excursion that left him several feet above the ground. It’s her story to tell, not mine.

YSAS lives a charmed life for sure—even bird poop bounces off of him. We have a kennel theory that if you end the day with poop on your head, things didn’t go your way. One evening I arrived home to find Quigley in such a state. I looked at him. He looked at me. I looked at Rowdy, Quig’s mentor who looked at me as if to say, ‘I told him, but he didn’t listen. They never do when they’re that young.’

Oh yeah, I forgot.
BearSpiritDog: I received Rose’s book in the mail yesterday. Some of the book was set right in this neighborhood. Lake Harriet and Lake Calhoun, the lakes I ride my bike around, are mentioned as is Edina which is the rich suburb where I go to estate sales. I signed the book and sent it on to OleyHowlers.

I just finished what ranks on the top of the stupid things I’ve done today list. I decided since AJ is away I would surprise him by working on the cabin. I climbed our ladder and tried paining the corners and hard to get areas near the roofing. I was halfway finished with one side before I realized that if I fell there was no AJ, no neighbors and Belle Starr doesn’t know the number for 911. I quit then and there and came inside.